Three Exhibitions Featuring Work
Of Theodor Seuss Geisel
Will Mark The Author's 100th Birthday Anniversary At UCSD

By Pat JaCoby

Three public
exhibitions drawn from the extensive Dr. Seuss Collection at
the University of California, San Diego will be mounted by UCSD’s
Geisel Library during the 100th birthday anniversary year of
famed author Theodor Seuss Geisel.

Opening
Jan. 5, 2004, the first major exhibition, The Dr. Seuss
You Never Knew, features early work from Geisel’s
school days at Dartmouth and Oxford, his advertising and magazine
work from the 1920’s and 1930’s and his illustration
work for other authors. Additionally, the show includes his
penetrating World War II cartoons for PM Magazine and
his work for the U.S. Army.

While Geisel is internationally
known for his children’s books, this initial exhibit illustrates
his little known but highly successful career as a commercial
and advertising artist and his strong editorial cartoons. It
also will include early photographs of the author.

The exhibit on the
main floor of Geisel Library continues to March 27, 2004.

The second exhibition,
Dr. Seuss Between the Covers, runs from May 24 to Sept.4
and focuses on the children’s books for which Geisel is
so beloved. The show will include finished drawings, mock-up
books and published works created by Geisel from And to
Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937) to Oh, the
Places You’ll Go! (1990).

Geisel’s style
of flamboyant, colorful illustrations, surreal surroundings
and clever yet simple rhymes is readily recognizable in these
original works, which also taught reading, self-confidence and
the wonderful possibilities of the imagination.

The third exhibit
in late fall, The Cat in the Hat for President, will
focus on how Dr. Seuss and his creations have become commonplace
features of American life and the American imagination.

Meanwhile, on March
2, 2004—the late author’s birth date—a bronze
sculpture of Theodor Seuss Geisel will be unveiled by Audrey
Geisel, widow of the author, during ceremonies on the Forum
level of Geisel Library. As a component of the observance, U.S.
Postal Service dignitaries will participate in a first-day issuance
ceremony for a postage stamp featuring a color photograph of
the author surrounded by illustrations of six characters from
his books. The stamp will become available nationally on that
date.

Geisel wrote 44 children’s
books which have been translated into more than 20 languages
and sold more than 500 million copies. Most of his original
work is included in the extensive Dr. Seuss Collection at UCSD’s
Geisel Library. The approximately 8,500 items in the collection
document the full range of Geisel’s creative achievements,
beginning in 1919 with his high school activities and ending
with his death in 1991. An overview of the collection can be
found at http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/collects/seuss.html.

For information on
hours of the exhibitions please call (858) 534-2533.